VOL. 51 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 P59
away from Dungey with superior-
ity in speed. It is now quite some
time since Ryan tasted personal
victory on foreign shores but he
insisted his enthusiasm for the
Nations remains intact.
"I would always accept the op-
portunity to represent my country
and would never turn it down,"
Dungey told Cycle News after
the race. "If anybody has some-
thing to say then there are plenty
of other riders out there who have
passed on the opportunity. I am
proud to be here every year and
I give it my best. It doesn't always
work out sometimes and in rac-
ing there are plenty of unpredict-
ables. Especially when you need
to have three solid guys. I don't
discredit them at all. We had an
awesome year in the States and
just some rough luck here. This
is the end of the year after a lot of
racing but there are no excuses.
The French and Belgians were
so consistent but we weren't;
that's all."
In the end the difference for
the last rostrum place came
down to incident and an oil cap.
Hitachi Construction Machinery
UK KTM's Shaun Simpson was
lucky to last the last six laps of
the first moto as his bike smoked
away, pluming oil vapor. His 13
th
—
being passed by Portugal's Rui
Goncalves on the last lap—had
to be counted when the Brit-
ish Champion would have cer-
tainly breached the top 10 as a
snapped chain in the second
moto signified game over for the
luckless privateer. Tomac, mean-
while, had stalled the Honda
and was being caught by Cold-
enhoff on the 250 for two laps.
Had the former 250 MX number
one been relegated by one posi-
tion then third place would have
dropped away for the USA. The
two nations tied on points with
Team USA getting the nod on the
tiebreaker.
The British, fourth yet again,
were crestfallen. "I was the weak
link…literally," mused Simpson
while the USA went through their
12th consecutive podium cer-
emony.
"I was pleased with the fact
that nobody gave up," assessed
Team USA Manager Roger De-
Coster. "We had a couple of
things that went against us like
yesterday and Jeremy's crash.
We did everything we could but
they were better than us today."
"I have to congratulate the
French, and Paulin who was un-
believable," DeCoster added
from the post-race conference.
"I never thought I would see the
day when the French would win
the Motocross of Nations on a
sand track. It was impressive,
they deserved 100 percent to win
and they rode like champions.
You guys make it difficult for me
to go back to the States and say
we were third behind you and the
Belgians, but a big congratula-
tions."
Cairoli Crumbles
Kegums was the place of dreams
for some and nightmares for oth-
ers. Red Bull KTM's Tony Cairoli
was so fast on the 250 SX-F in
the first moto that it was almost
believable that he'd catch Pau-
lin. His clutch-pass out of the
tight right-hander to overtake Van
Horebeek (struggling himself with
a bent gear lever) just showed
the sheer skill and capacity of
the eight-time World Champion
and was delectable to watch.
Cairoli admitted afterward that he
"maybe was going too fast" as he
